


Welcome Home

by AlterEgon



Category: Enchantment Emporium - Tanya Huff
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-11-16
Updated: 2013-11-16
Packaged: 2018-01-01 18:13:30
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,547
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1047026
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AlterEgon/pseuds/AlterEgon
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Michael drops by unexpectedly and has an announcement to make.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Welcome Home

**Author's Note:**

  * For [DV-Skitz (Skitz_phenom)](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Skitz_phenom/gifts).



> Dear DV-Skitz (Skitz_phenom),  
> I hope you like this little scene with Allie and Michael!

  
  
Illustration by Rebekah

Allie let herself flop onto the sofa, kicking off her shoes just in time to let only socks touch the upholstery. It wasn't as if the shoes weren't charmed to avoid dragging in dirt – that kind of charm really made the chore of cleaning up so much easier - , but there were such things as manners.

Manners that they were just trying to teach Jack to follow. Getting a half-Gale Dragon Prince to mind instructions about proper behavior was not the easiest task in the world, and it was made so much easier by never letting him see anyone in the family behave contrary to those rules to begin with.

Of course, Jack wasn't there right now.

"Where is Jack anyway?" Michael asked, once again apparently reading her thoughts. He had been able to do that for so long that Allie half-suspected that one of the Aunties may have had something to do with it. She squinted at him, going through the charms she could see. Nope. At least the exposed ones were all Allie-approved ones that were supposed to be there. Since Michael was wearing only a tee and jeans, she doubted that anyone would have been able to sneak a charm where she couldn't see it right now. Though truth to be told, it was never a good idea to underestimate the Aunties.

"Charlie took him out," she answered her oldest friend's question. "I think she was going to show him Paris to broaden his education."

Michael could only guess at what exactly Charlie was going to show a fourteen year old Dragon Prince in Paris. He leaned towards the table to help himself to a large piece of the lemon meringue pie sitting there. "What's on this?" he asked Allie, fork hovering just out of reach of his mouth. He was sure that Allie wouldn't knowingly let him eat anything that could cause trouble, but he wouldn't put it past her to neglect to mention some of the charms that were known to sometimes be put in pies.

She glanced at the pie as if she didn't know perfectly well already. "Nothing you don't want to eat," she said. "The usual. And it won't make you fat even if you eat the whole pie in one go again."

"Are you saying I'm a glutton?" he wanted to know just before he put the piece in his mouth and swallowed.

Allie grinned. "The Aunties would call it having a healthy appetite and showing proper appreciation for their baking," she pointed out. "However, that is one of mine."

She had actually just come downstairs after taking it out of the oven when Michael had walked in, clapped Joe on the shoulder and swept her up into a bear-hug that left her breathless and surreptitiously checking her ribs for fractures.

For a split second she had feared that something had happened, that Brian had once again lost it and gone back to his old habits of sleeping around, but Michael's happy, radiant smile drove those suspicions away as quickly as they had come.

She'd left Joe in charge of the shop – the leprechaun seemed to sell more yoyos when she wasn't downstairs anyway, and if he needed her for anything else, he could just call for her. He had gotten that much more confident since he'd hooked up with Auntie Gwen – and ushered Michael upstairs, asking if he had eaten already even tough she knew the answer wouldn't matter. Michael could always eat – especially if the thing to be eaten was a Gale pie.

"You still haven't told me why you're here," Allie pointed out as Michael finished off his piece of pie in record speed.

"Oh," he answered around a mouthful of pie, "Brian had to meet with a client – here in Calgary – and I thought I'd come along and pay y'all a visit. Too bad most of you aren't even here, though."

Allie's eyebrows shot up. "You're saying I'm not enough for you?" she wanted to know.

"Allie, no, I didn't mean that! I—I'd like to have another piece of the pie." Keeping an eye on Allie, he reached for it.

"Not a good save," she pointed out, but she was smiling. "Graham's going to be back when he's done at the newspaper. Auntie Gwen is up in the loft, actually. She's trying out some new charms that she wants to put on Joe's shirts. Everyone else has jobs, you know – but they'll be back for dinner. You are going to stay the night, aren't you?"

Michael gave a half-shrug. "Brian should be done by five. We have rooms at the—"

Allie cut him off. "Cancel those. You're staying here, of course! Both of you!" She fixed him with her gaze, daring him to try and object.

Instead, he laughed. "Actually, that was a lie. We don't have any rooms. I knew you'd want us to stay here."

I, not we. Allie wasn't sure how comfortable Brian was around her family right now. It didn't matter, though. If he and Michael were permanent, which looked likely, he’d better get used to them again even after being used by her gran the way he had been. At least none of the other Aunties would do what she had done and use an outsider to further their plans. She didn't think they would, in any case.

"What did Brian think of that?" she asked, just to be sure. She liked to be prepared right now.

Michael chewed, swallowed and answered: "He's okay with it." Then, after a moment of Allie's scrutinizing look: "He really is! He's not horribly traumatized by … recent events or anything. Plus, he loves your Auntie Gwen's blueberry pie."

"And you don't?" Besides, Brian could have all the pie that he wanted back home. After all, Michael had a penny. Unless… "Are you keeping your penny secret from Brian?"

"I haven't exactly explained the connection between a small coin in the fridge and tasty pies," Michael admitted, "but I'm pretty sure he noticed something. It's kind of hard to miss if there are pies in the morning that no one bought or made overnight."

That was true. While people were generally good at reasoning away things they had no wish to believe in, the constant stream of pies in the fridge would require more than that to miss.

Then again, Brian must have noticed something back when he had all but moved into their apartment, too. It wasn't like he was entirely unprepared for the things that might happen around her family.

"You want me to see if there's a new one in the fridge?" Allie asked as Michael finished off the rest of the pie.

He put aside his fork and plate. "You don't have to," he assured her.

She got up anyway, returning minutes later with a rhubarb pie. "Don't finish up all of this one at once," she cautioned. "It's one of Auntie Jane's and it might give you a terrible yearning to come visit the family." It also contained any amount of good advice about how to run the business in Calgary. Allie didn't mind that as long as it wasn't she who ate the pie. She still liked things to go the way she wanted them to, not the way the Aunties directed her.

"Thanks for the warning." Michael carefully carved a small piece from the pie and tried it as if he could taste the charms.

"Allie…"

There it was. She'd known, on some level, that there was more to this visit than Michael simply dropping by because Brian happened to have a client meeting nearby. She braced herself for whatever was going to come next.

"…if Brian's interview goes well, we might be staying here."

"Here?" she asked slightly confused. "I thought that was settled already."

He shook his head, still only nibbling on the pie. "No," he said, "I mean, yes, it was. It is. I mean – we're trying to start our own thing. Move away from his father's company. If we get this contract… the sensible thing to do is going to be to move."

"Here?" Allie felt her heart stop when she thought of it. She was no longer in love with Michael – had not been since the moment she had first set eyes on Graham – but she still loved him deeply. Like more than a brother and just a tiny bit less than the lover he had never been to her. Even though it was no longer a constant ache, she still missed him.

Michael looked at her with some concern in his eyes. "To Calgary," he pointed out. "Are you okay?"

"Hm?" She shook herself. "Yes. Oh yes. So how likely is it that Brian will get that contract?"

Taking in her radiant smile at the idea and her pleasure as she imagined all the things they could get up to together again, he matched her expression with a smile of his own. "I'd say it just got a whole lot more likely."

Allie took the knife and cut another piece of pie that she put on Michael's plate, then took one for herself. "Michael…" she started, waiting for him to look at her before she continued. "Welcome home."


End file.
